The Tender Commission for Senior Civil Servants at its meeting on Tuesday elected Acting Head of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration Ihor Hundych as the head of the regional administration.

This was reported by the former director of the Department for Strategic Planning and European Integration of the Coal Ministry, Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, who was among the short-listed candidates for governorship of Zhytomyr region.

"Well, that's it… I am third. I lost to the acting governor and the head of the main directorate of Derzhprodspozhyvsluzhba [State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection] in Zhytomyr region. This was an interesting and eventful day," Bno-Airiian wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.

Acting Chief of the State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Zhytomyr region Oleksandr Shpit was designated as a backup candidate to lead the regional administration, if Hundych failed to pass special checks or gives up the post.

The contest was held in three rounds: 16 candidates participated in the first round, ten in the second, and three in the third – Hundych, Shpit and himself, Bno-Airiian said.

As reported, on August 31, 2016, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed an order to dismiss Serhiy Mashkovsky, who occupied the post of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration's head for more than two years, after Mashkovsky filed in his resignation.

On the same day, Poroshenko appointed deputy head of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration Ihor Hundych as acting governor.